Australian shares are set to open lower this morning after tech stocks dragged on Wall Steet yesterday. The three major US benchmarks closed lower, paring earlier gains, and it was a short session in the US with Wall Street taking an early mark ahead of the Independence Day celebrations. Nike, Caterpillar and Apple were among the worst performing stocks on the Dow Jones. While Facebook shares fell 2.4 per cent on reports that the social media company is facing a broader probe into its data sharing with Cambridge Analytica.
Global oil prices rose with US crude hitting above $75 a barrel before dropping back to around $74, iron ore fell by 5 cents and the gold price recovered from a nearly seven month low on Tuesday.
U.S. government debt yields ticked lower on Tuesday morning as fears of a global trade dispute weighed on economic sentiment ahead of the Labor Departments June jobs report, scheduled for release on Friday.
Local Economic newsToday, there is a raft of economic indicators due to be released. Both AiGroup and Commonwealth Bank release results of the surveys of purchasing managers in the services sector. The Federation Chamber of Automotive Industries releases the June sales data for new vehicles. And the ABS issues May data on retail trade and international trade.
MarketsWall Street closed lower yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.54 per cent to close at 24,175, the S&P 500 was down 0.5 per cent to close at 2,713 and the NASDAQ fell 0.9 per cent to close at 7503.
European markets closed higher yesterday: London’s FTSE gained 0.6 per cent, Paris added 0.8 per cent and Frankfurt was up 0.9 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed yesterday, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.4 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.4 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 21 pts loss. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index adding 32 points to close at 6210.
Company newsWorley Parsons
(ASX:WOR) has been awarded a new three-year contract by NOVA Chemicals for continued engineering on the Corunna Cracker Expansion Project in Canada. Meantime, Worley Parsons global consulting firm, Advisian has been awarded a pre-feed contract by Borouge which is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Borealis AG. Shares in Worley Parsons
(ASX:WOR) closed 0.4 per cent higher to $17.90 yesterday.
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US73.87 cents, 56.01 Pence Sterling, 81.69 Yen and 63.37 Euro cents.
CommoditiesIron ore futures are pointing to 0.6 per cent loss.
Gold has gained $12.30 to $US1254 an ounce.
Silver has added 22c to $US16.06 an ounce.
Oil was up 34c to $US74.28 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading mixed: Bitcoin has added 0.4 per cent to US$6,627, Ethereum has lost 0.8 per cent to US$471 and EOS has risen 1.14 per cent to US$9.00
